Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

[novadave]

Well I thought it was about time I posted details of my car up here, sorry its not a Ford!

We compete in the Sportway Tyres Endurance championship, were now in our third full season. Last year we finished 5th overall and won the 1300 class, so we don't do too badly. Endurance rallying is for saloon cars up to 1400cc and using standard engines and gearboxes. Basic safety equipment is required, cage and harnesses plus extinguishers etc. You can upgrade brake linings etc and modify the suspension so long as you don't use rose joints or change the mounting positions. Thats about it in terms of modifying the car, although obviously there are a few tweaks you can do within the rules. There is also a control tyre so no advantage can be gained by those with a large wallet.

The events themselves consist of day leg using special tests (stages) where basically you go as fast as you can. The average speed is set at a max of 40 mph, which doesn't sound much but is virtually impossible to achieve! Typically there will be between 50 and 120 miles of these tests, followed by a road rally overnight, or early hours depending on the event. The longest single test of the year is an 18 miler through Worthy Farm, the site of Glastonbury festival. The toughest event starts around lunchtime saturday and finishes around 6am the next morning, and you definitely now you have done a rally! At the moment Rover 200's are the car to have, there pushing 120bhp with aftermarket management, my Nova is lucky if its got 80brake!

This year we have struggled a bit with some inconsistent handling that has got worse through the year and a very tired engine! So over the summer, no events since the end of June and because of tree disease cancelling an event only one left at the end of November, I have been rebuilding the car and trying to find the source of the strange handling. I'll update below on progress.

Heres a couple of pics of us in action.

[novadave]

So first off over the summer was finding the handling issue. This has been scary at times with sudden understeer or an inability to keep the car in a straight line on the loose. Back on the south west endurance rally in March it was scary bad and was shortly flowed by a bolt falling out of the the ball joint on the tca. I replace the ball joints every two or three events as they are a known week point on the nova and we are not allowed to run the usual metal joint upgrade. So had a spare on board which definitely improved things but still not as it used to be. So this TCA was suspect number one, on taking it off it was obvious what the issue was, the loose bolt had ovalled the holes, so much so that however tight I thought I had this done upo it wasn't tight enough to stop the joint moving, hence the dodgy handling.



New tca all painted up complete with new bushes, they were worn as well.



Stripping the suspension revealed a further issue, well two really! Firstly the damper inserts, bilstein grp A forest inserts where totally shot. I had an issue with the strut bodies already as a previous owner had filed the lower mounting holes to adjust camber. Unfortunately wrongly so I could not get the correct camber without using offset bolts. So a nice new set of bodies and inserts required. I had been wanting to change the spring rate for a while so ordered up new springs at the same time. Strut bodies proved to be in short supply so I only managed one initially, then had a comedy fortnight with comp brake who sent three incorrect bodies before I gave up! Luckily I found an almost new pair on ebay complete with springs mounts etc. So fitted my new inserts into these and now have some spares. The second issue was that the original inserts were plainly not the Grp A ones they were supposed to be, the new inserts being much beefier and stronger around the top mounts! The rear dampers were the same when the new ones arrived they are much thicker and beefier than what I had before. So I am expecting a transformed car when I get it all back together again.

[danknight72]

Good work mate, hopefully will be a lot better now

[M11rf]

Looks like a lot of fun for not a lot of money...

[GavinR]

Hi Dave,

Good to see a thread on your car, hope it goes well on the Great Bustard next month

Gavin

[MCURZON]

Car looks fun! I've rallied quite a few Novas over the years and still have a soft spot for them.

Hope the rebuild goes well and you have a great 2014

Matt

[novadave]

Thanks for the comments everyone, much appreciated, Gavin we will hopefully be back on your's and Gary's pace with all the bits I've changed and everything working as it should. Spent the afternoon on the car today finally starting to put it all back together having spent most of the summer removing bits and pieces! One of the issues we had this year was inconsistent brakes, I upgraded to the later calipers last year which was huge improvement over the old sliding post type. However this year I have had trouble getting enough bite into the brakes and generally lacking confidence in them. So a strip down showed a failing servo, the second in 18 months, and also the end of the master cylinder was showing signs of fluid getting past the seals. So a new Master and cylinder and good 2nd hand servo have been fitted. One of the jobs I have wanted to do for a while is to move the brake lines inside, but there has always been a more important job to do! So finally doing this now as well. I have chosen to use aeroquip pipe throughout, mainly for the ease of fitting, picking up all the pipes next week from Speedflow who are local to me. No picks yet but will take some next week.

One other cosmetic job I have done is to paint the wheels. I have five Compomotives I tend to use, but also use old Astra alloys, ala the works GSI's. Just painted six of them white. Just used rattle cans for primer and the white paint then a couple of coats of clear lacquer to give them some protection. I am sure they won't stay this good for long but its cheap enough to repaint them every few events.



A couple of chips on the edge form re-fitting the tyre but not too bad.

[rwd2ltrfiesta]

a nother damned handerling nova, i used 2 look after some novas for oval racing and that ovaling was a common thing on the ns tca the best way around that was a rosey joint (if your regs allow)

[novadave]

Regs don't allow rose joints unfortunately, just gonna keep a close on these after each rally now. That one probably did twenty rally's before it went though.

[rwd2ltrfiesta]

another thing we tried was a billet insert,

[novadave]

How does that work? Drilling the hole out and fitting a weld in insert?

[rwd2ltrfiesta]

yes mate, bigger i mean not billet

[Toymex]

Could you fit twin 40, s and an Irmscher cam as per the nova sport for a bit more power ,the sports were around 100 bhp

[novadave]

Unfortunatley not, because there is a road rally element we can only use a max of two carburettor chokes, so I am stuck with the standard twin choke pier burg. Which to be honest isn't that bad once you work out how it works and get it set up correctly.

[novadave]

Took the rear beam off today for a quick paint and some new bushes. I mentioned earlier about the difference between the old and new Bilsteins, having them off the car just highlights it!



Not only bigger but more travel as well, a huge difference in the rates as well, hopefully they will stop this happening.



Had an ongoing issue with the beam trapping the handbrake cable against the exhaust, which physically won't go any higher. Hopefully won't be bottoming out these new bilsteins.

[Stuart Mchugh]

nice nova i do mine

[novadave]

A small update, but in reality quite a big step forward. Firstly the rear beam is already to back in. New bushes, re-painted and lacquered, just waiting on some new brake lines and wheel cylinders and it will be re-fitted.



So onto the front of the car and the engine bay. The engine has been noticeably down on power this year and breathing very heavily out of the breather, imagine a steam train chimney! So I have been on the lookout for a replacement, these 1300's are very hard to find now and are very popular for stock rods and auto grass racing so not cheap either! I did toy with the idea of putting in 1400 injection motor but the fuelling and management changes to the car were too much for now, in terms of time mainly. I looked at having mine rebuilt, blueprinted, but the timescales for getting it back were an issue for our event at the end of November. So I now have a Dave Walker built Autograss engine. It's only done a handful of auto grass meetings so should be good for a couple of seasons for us. Basically its blueprinted and built with selected components which should give us as much power as we can get out of the standard motor within the regs. So onto fitting and the first issue! The front engine mount bracket had a crack, we had a bolt work loose last year and its oval led the hole and cracked it! So had to sort a replacement.



All refitted now, gearbox checked over and new crown wheel and pinion fitted, managed to get the lower ratio available for the Nova.
Just need an oil filter this ones an imperial thread and my other engine was metric, so all my spares no longer fit! Should be running by the end of the week.

[novadave]

A bit of a frustrating day on the car at the weekend, 2 steps forward and one back! Refitted all the suspension which went fine but had a few issues with the brakes. The new handbrake cable proved to be too short, would you believe there are there are three versions for an Sr Nova, mines right on the change point. So a longer one ordered, arriving tuesday I hope. The new aeroquip pipes were great, except they had manage dot get the wrong fittings on two of them, so for now I have managed to swap the hoses around, which means a silly long hose from the master cylinder to the bulkhead, but with a rally next week no time to get a new one done. Even more frustrating was taking qmaster cylinder in to make sure I had the right thread sizes only to find the new m/c has a different size!! Adapter on the way for Tuesday.

On the plus side the engine is running, started up instantly which I am taking as a good sign. Bit of delay on the startup as the start motor failed, so back on with the old one. The new one arrived on a spare engine and looked new! Also the bracket that the engine mount fits too on the body at the front was cracked so a bit of welding required. This was the one with the damaged mount. Getting there now and with luck should be up and running this week which gives me next week for a shakedown and to get used to driving it again!

[novadave]

On other job I managed to complete was fitting my new alloy rad and fans. Not really had overheating issues in the past but the extra capacity is nice to have. Main benefit is moving the fans to the outside creating some much needed space in the engine bay.

[novadave]

Well after a lot of effort last week we made the start of the Great Bustard Rally last Saturday. The first time I got to drive the car was from the trailer park to the start, all seemed ok and the engine was pulling well. The first test, not allowed to call them stages! was at Worthy Farm home of the Glastonbury festival. This is a test I have really enjoyed in the past and was looking forward to it, a nice fourteen miler to get us warmed up. Started off well and the new engine was pulling much better than the old one definitely quicker. I managed to overshoot a junction and a rover on his second lap was catching us, so I let him past, but we were actually quicker than he was! So followed him for the next couple of miles. Then disaster braking for a very tight slot right through a gateway the brakes felt a little odd, then stopping for the next passage control I realised we didn't have any!! So we limped through the rest of the test back to the trailer park, at Worthy as well. Fluid poured out of the N/S rear drum when you pressed the pedal, caused by a failed brake cylinder, these were only fitted the week before and it looks like a faulty seal, ripped in two! We were making plans to seal off the brake hose when Dave Whittock arrived, yes former international co-driver to Per Eklund, he said have you tried the local motor factors. I had but could get no reply, Saturday afternoon so shut. I'll ring my mate he says, long story short 20 minutes later he had us a new wheel cylinder. One of the attractions of endurance events is that you can miss a few tests and rejoin later, so we fixed the car and planned to rejoin at the next worthy test. This was going really well, I was getting used to much improved handling and really enjoying things. Then Disaster number two going up a very steep hill I changed down to second or rather the lever did but we still in 3rd gear! Near the end of the test this time so managed to limp through in 3rd and back to the trailer park again. This time a broken bolt in the gear linkage proved un fixable, we didn't have one small enough and long enough, so game over. Our first retirement in 3 1/2 years and over 25 events.
Looking on the positive side the new engine was great and the suspension is much improved especially over the bumpier stuff. Also not much re-prep to do before next year, although the next event isn't until February.

Not the best pic but you can just make out the damaged seal on the piston.

[anotherdeadhero]

Damn shame the Nova let you down on the Bustard Dave, especially after your hard work.

It does sound like you'll be a very competitive package again on the X-Part - looking forward to dicing with you over selectif times already

I just had to chip in with a couple of my favorite pic of the Nova in action, from the 2012 X-Part:

[novadave]

Well I have now changed the other rear wheel cylinder, which was also leaking! Wont be buying these of ebay again! A also stripped the front brakes whilst I was about and found this issue with the pads. They look like they are rusting and breaking up in chunks around the edges, anyone any idea whats causing this? They are Ferodo pads and have performed fine, now changed for Mintex!





All set for Weston motor clubs christmas gymkhana now.

[Graham]

pads that break up chunks around the edges are usually pads that are being over heated

[novadave]

I did wonder that, but no other signs of overheating on the discs and we have not had any fade issues either. Ghe new pads are harder and a different brand so hopefully that will cure it.

[novadave]

Well its been a little quiet work wise on the nova over christmas but got a couple of niggly jobs done. At the end of last season the dashboard rev counter failed so I bought a new dash off ebay to swap over the counter. Did this still no good, bugger, the cause was traced down to a broken track on the pad on the back, the lower edge overlaps the unit and when its removed and installed a few times it gets damaged and breaks. I tried soldering it but it went going to hold up.


So I thought I would just fit the new dash I had bought, wrong, it's a mk2 dash and has a different multi plug on the back to my mk1 wiring. So back to ebay and find another, except none are early ones so ended up paying well over the odds for one on a Nova forum. But all works now even all the warning lights!

[novadave]

I have also been out competing in our Motor club boxing day auto test on Weston Airfield. These run more as a giant slalom down the flu length of an old runway and are proving very popular. We had over 30 cars out ranging from full spec group 4 escorts to an Audi TT. I managed 7th in my class which wasn't too bad, more importantly nothing broke!

Then last week I was out on a club 12 car over the Mendips and the edge of the somerset levels. Very wet conditions in places, a boat would have been better at one point! I had a new to me Nav out who hasn't competed in 20 years so a bit of fun and finish was the aim, ended up 5th and quite please with the nav and the car. The only issue to crop was that the front brakes are not working as well as they should with the rears locking up very easily and not enough front effort. I suspect it's down to some air still in the front circuit so a another eezi bleed session this weekend.

[mexicotait]

I never managed to get a good pedal using easy bleed
Gravity bleed the brakes worked far better

[novadave]

Brakes are now back to how they should be, managed to get some more air out which has definately sorted the issue. It was mot day today the little nova sailed through, we'll it should really given how much of it has been replaced in the last few months!

With the postponement of the Xpart rally this coming weekend, down to the weather unfortunately, my first rally of the year is the Bath Festival road rally next week. Bit of a dilemma over tyres as the Dunlop forest tyres I was planning on running are not E marked. Given the furore about this at the moment not sure I will rake the risk, even though they are perfectly legal there is a police issue with them over in wales. So may just leave my endurance tyres on, they are pretty good in the wet!

[novadave]

We'll that was great fun, a cracking event and superbly organised. A must do event for any road rally fans I think. We finished and we're not last, but hampered by a puncture on the third test and a few navigation issues from my novice nav, he did well though to get us around.

An odd issue at halfway, a kinked oil breather hose meant loads of oil out the breather and hardly any in the engine! All sorted for the second half though. The weather was horrendous, horizontal rain most of the night, you had to feel for the poor Marshall's.

It was a great shakedown for the endurance season though which starts on next weeks south west, in Devon and Cornwall. The car just needs a good wash and a spanner check and we're good to go, really looking forward to it. The new suspension is a huge improvement, it saw me breaking way to early most of the time, so I need to get used to that a bit I think!

[novadave]

Last weekend saw us competing on the South West endurance rally, first round of this years championship. Had a good day really, car handled well, new engine was strong. Unfortunately I was a little enthusiastic through a very deep muddy puddle. This resulted in a small amount of crud entering the carb and blocking the idle jets etc. So retired with the engine running on two cylinders, carb off and cleaned at home and she started first time!!

[novadave]

I have been getting the car ready for the next event, The ross Endurance at the end of April. Not too much to do really, mainly removing mud and cleaning things after out muddy puddle incident. One of the bigger issues was the crud in the headlights, I couldn't get it out very well, luckily a fellow weston motor club member had a spare pair he let me have, brand new but dusty! So we went from this.



To this.



I managed to get a new PIAA harness of ebay for a bargain price so fitted that, the loom is really well made and includes switches allowing a choice from permanently on to dip beam activated etc.



I took the opportunity to re do my switches internally as well, one of them shorted along with the relay so had to come out any way. I made up a new panel and fixed it into the radio slot, which was just a hole in the dash before. Not quite finished in this pic, bit of tidying of wires to do.



All thats left now is to change the handbrake cable, which kept seizing in the outer on the last event, so much so you couldn't even pull it on at one point!!

[novadave]

Well sorted the handbrake issue today. The new one I fitted was nearly impossible to move through the outer, indeed I couldn't move it all off the car. I think a combination of heat and water have caused the issue. So the new one has been thoroughly heat shielded, a layer of heat proof reflective tape covered in a heat proof sleeve, that should do the trick. Once flitted the handbrake is back to its normal self once again!

[novadave]

Well were all loaded and ready to go for the Ross endurance tomorrow, a late scare today on the test drive when it started misfiring again. Crawled home and stripped the carb for the third time to find some more crap in there. Blew it all out with the airline and petrol. Seems to have done the trick!

I' leashed out on some ds3000 pads, which came highly recomended. So far I'm impressed a nice solid pedal and lots of stopping power.

If anyone's in the area Ross motor club are still looking for Marshall's. First car is at 11:45 from Ross cattle market if you fancy it.

[madragon199]

good luck...nice write up..mark

[mario r h santos]

How did it went?

Cheers,

Mário Santos.

[novadave]

Well after non finishing our last two endurance events we both agreed that finish was the aim for the Ross, which we managed! It took me four tests to get warmed up, and nearly ended our event on the first corner in Goodrich, carried too much sped through and ended up on the inside of the corner going up the bank at a very odd angle.

Bishopswood felt like a car trial at times, just trying to keep going up the steep bendy section was a real challenge, sad to see Jim Llewellyn out here in the focus. Quite liked the second Bishopswood, even stalling at at the PC we set 10th fastest I think.

In the past I have not really enjoyed Whitfield, just too rough, especially last year. However this year I really enjoyed it, I would say it was Bumpy rather than rough, with the exception of the hole I hit in one of the dips, my shoulder is still aching this morning from that one! The first section was interesting, so bumpy I couldn't keep my foot on the loud pedal, bouncing on and off the throttle. Second run through ruined any chance of a good result for us a low tension lead broke off the coil. Took us six minutes to find and fix it and get going again. According to the results we had been up to ninth at this point but that dropped us right back down the order.

We had an ok regularity, only getting slowed by one member of the public pulling out of his drive backwards in front of us and driving on slower than us for the next few miles.

I really enjoyed the road rally, even with some vague steering at his point, the top mounts are seriously shot it seems, only two events old. One misplot from Dave though and we missed an irtc, that 30 minute penalty cost us the class win and dropped us down to third. Nevermind we finished!!

We had a great battle all day with Yan in the Micra and we were even swapping times with Chris and Paul in the Rover ahead of us. So we ended up 16th o/a and 3rd in class, but it could so easily have been a top ten finish for us.

I haven't really enjoyed the Ross in the past but this year I really did enjoy it, less rough than in the past and very slickly organised. A big thanks and well done to Simon and all his team for a great event.

[novadave]

A couple of small issues to sort before the next round of the championship. Had yet another ball joint bolt come loose, locative, lick wired and nyloc nut all failed to stop it. So new ball joint and I'm replacing the tca as a precaution, it's the other side to the one I had issues with last year.

I fitted some ds3000 pads for this event and they were much better than the minted I ran previously, however they require very little pedal pressure, which takes some getting used too. They lock up very easily which resulted in a couple of stalls and also nudging a bank. Anyone got any thoughts on this, it seems way too easy to lock the wheels to me.

[anotherdeadhero]

Don't use the brakes Dave - they only slow you down

[mexicotait]

You still run a brake servo?

[novadave]

Yes, I have to to comply with the technical regs.